‘Father – A Title Like No Other’ by Bishop DiMarzio

Father’s Day is a secular holiday that draws our attention to the role of paternity in our own lives and in our society. It is said to have originated in 1908 in Fairmont, W.Va. Grace Golden Clayton is believed to have been inspired to celebrate fathers after a deadly mine explosion in nearby Monongah killed 360 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy.

Another driving force behind the establishment of Father’s Day in this country was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd of Creston, Wash. Her father, a Civil War veteran, was forced to raise six children by himself on a rural farm in Eastern Washington State. It was only after Mrs. Dodd became an adult that she realized the strength and selflessness her father had shown in raising children on his own.